Art of steel ship-hull construction



Sept. 11, 1923. 1,467.426

R. E. ELLIS ART OF STEEL SHIP HULL CONSTRUCTION Filed July 1, 1920 s Sheets-Sheet 1 ll. in 74ka IL n u n N n II zg w awwwfm fiaar/ xii moon [1/15 I E951 whom 1mg R. E. ELLIS ART OF STEEL SHIP HULL CONSTRUCTION Sept. 11, 1923.

Filed July 1, 1920 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Robe/f flamed [/1419 I Sept. 11, 1.923. 1,467.426

' R. E. ELLIS ART OF STEEL SHIP HULL CONSTRUCTION Filed July 1 1920 Sheets-Sheet 5 plates to form them to such stern post.

Patented Sept. 11, 1923.

UNITED .1;

ART OF STEEL SHIP-HULL CONSTRUCTION.

Application filed July 1,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT ELWOOD ELLIS, a subject of Great Britain, residing at Everett, in the county of Snohomish and State of Washington, have invented a certain new and useful Art of Steel Ship-Hull Construction, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the art of steel shi hull construction.

l he present practice is to construct a framework to which metal plates are riveted and building in a stern post as a means to join the plates in the stern and to provide for the rudder. But such stern post requires a great amount of complex bending of such Such design of hull with a stern .post greatly enhances the cost of construction and is otherwise objectionable.

Moreover, the use of lates as units of construction is objectiona le. They vary in size, being cut for designated parts of the ship hull and hence must be kept assorted. They must be provided with rivet holes which must be located with great care so that they will register. This involves several operations for marking and cutting as well as crews of plate hangers, bolterups and riveters and much acet lene cutting to make the plates fit. Also, t ese metal plates are unwleldy and difiicult to handle as they often weigh two tons or more. While being stacked or marked for riveting, or carried in the yard to receive the various preparatory operations before installation, they often become distorted, the correction of which is costly. Thus, plate hull construction is a very expensive process in shipbuilding and the hull produced-is one with many thousands of rivet points exposed to the sea, and when any one or any number of said rivets show signs of leakage below the water line, the ship must be drydocked to replace such rivets.

The use of channel irons in place of plates obviates such ob'ections to a large extent but in using channel irons in constructing hulls in place of plates a difiiculty would be encountered in making many of the sharp bends incident to such design, owing to flare and tumble home in the existing design of hull, so that a special desi of ship is necessary to make such use of c annel irons practicable'.

Furthermore, objection to the use of chan- 1920. Serial no; 393,250.

nel irons as the units of construction obtains in their not being uniform in Width, the lack of uniformity being due to the variatons in the rollers which form or roll out the channel irons, which variation is induced by the change in temperature of said rollers. This has operated against the introduction of channel iron construction for ship hulls. My method of construction overcomes all such objection.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a ship hull with a flat bottom stern formed of channel irons with a stem to stern bilge plate adapted to take up any discrepancy arising either from varying d1- mensions of the units of construction or from settlin of the hull while in process of construction, whereby is eliminated first the stern post of present practice involving compound curved plates and second, a large portion of the stern which does not provide for suflicient displacement of the water to be self-supporting or near self-supporting.

Another object 1s to rovide a new design of ship hull substantially square or rectangular in vertical cross section at all transverse planes and in which all transverse.

sections are similar in form to the midsh1p section, which render such use of channel irons posslble because 1n suchnew rectilinear design it is not necessary to bend in any degree but a relatively small number of the channel iron units, and such bends as are necessary are of a very simple character and of long radius. Owing to the special design of vessel, the twist commonly found in plates which require to be shaped to fit present design is altogether absent in the design used in connection with this invention. A further primary object of my inventon is to provide a ship hull which will be economical as to the material that enters the same, economical as to the labor necessary to prepare said material for use, and economical as to installation, the number of skilled men commonly employed being very much reduced.

The above mentioned general objects of my invention, together with others inherent in the same, are attained by the mechanism illustrated 1n the following drawings, the same being merely a preferred exemplary form of embodiment of my invention, throughout which. drawings like reference numerals indicate like parts Figure 1 is a view in cross section of onelgglf the hull between transverse frame memrs; Figure 2 is a view in cross section of onehalf the hull through'a transverse frame;

Figure 3 is a View of a curved plate forming the bilge;

igure 4 is a view of a straight plate formingvsuch bilge;

ig. 5 is a view in perspective of a joint formed by the abutting ends of two channel irons.

Fig. 6 is a top view of said joint- Fig. 7 is a view on broken line 7, 7 of Fig. 6;

ig. 8 is a viewof a modified form of joint formed by the abutting ends of two channel irons;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of a joint formed with a bracing member interposed;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged view of cross section of a joint formed by abutting flanges of two channel irons;

Fig. 11 is a view of a snips bow in ele vation, embodying m invention showing the bilge plates exten ing to stem;

Fig. 12 is a view of the stern in elevation of such a ship showing the bilge plates inclining upwards and extending to stern;

Fig. 13 is a lateral view of the bow por tion in elevation of such a ship;

Fig. 14 is a body view looking aft of a shilp embodying my invention;

ig. 15 is'a body view looking forward of a ship embodying my invention;

Fig. 16 is a v1ew of the stern portion of a hull in elevation embodying my invention showing, the flat bottom construction; and

Fig. 17 is a fragmentary plan view of the hull of such a ship.

The transverse frame sections in the plans of a ship used for purposes of illustration are numbered 20 to 60, inclusive. Thesev sections are composed of frame parts consisting of a bottom piece. 61, an;upright 62, and an upper beam 63. The units of construction or channel irons 64 have flanges 65. These units are preferably formed with right-angled grooves 66 in the heels 67 of the flange. The flanges are secured together by rivets 68. The transverse frame parts 61 with recesses 69 to receive the flanges 65 reinforce the bottom units, while the upright frame pieces 62 and the upper frame piece 63 with recesses 69 serve to reinforce and support the sides and top respectively.

In making the joint between the ends of the abutting channel irons, one of two preferable ways'may be followed: the end portions of the flanges 65 may be scarfed as at 70, and the end portion of the web part 71 of the channel irons maybe joggled as at 72, Figs. 5, 6, 'and'7' or both flan es 65 and web may be joggled as at 73, i ig. 8. The bilge plate 74 is preferably curve as shown in Fig. 3, but may be straight as in Fig. 4. The n per transverse frame pieces 63 are centrallj sup orted by pillars 75. Longitudinally exten ing pieces 76. serve as braces between the frame pieces 61. Light weight lates 77 with-bracing 78- serve to enclose t e upper deck. Reinforcing girders 7 9 may be riveted between the channel unit 64, Fig. 9. I provide these girders 79 of angle form rather than the bulb form, so that the flange part will resist distortion and prevent the girder from being bent or damaged from cargo, it being essential that said girder maintain its right-angled position with respect to the vessel wall, to enable said girder to perform its full function as a reinforcing member.

In constructing the hull, channel irons forming the bottom of the hull would be erected and riveted together as respects their flanges and ends, and then the transverse frame ieces 61 would be put in place upon these c annel irons. It will be noted that none of these bottom channel units require any bending except those in the stern extending beyond section 25, which bend would be upwardly tomeet the stern. The bend necessary in these channel units would be most simple and easily made at the yard itself, as distinguished from the steel mill, by the well known methods on the slabs or rolls.

The form of end joint illustrated in Fig. 8 is more preferable, as it only necessitates operating upon but one end of the two channel units forming the joint.

After placing the transverse frame pieces 61 in place, the inner bottom 80 would be erected. Thereafter would follow the upright transverse frame pieces 62 and the supporting pillars 75, with the beams 63, on which are. secured the deck channel unit 81. With the transverse frame members thus prepared, the side wall channel units 82 are erected and riveted in place. These also, it will be noted, require no bending, except in forming the bow from transverse sections 34 to 60 and in forming the stern from -transverse section 25 aft, all being most simple bends, with long radii,'said bends being easily made on the slabs or otherwise. The hull bottom and side portions are then joined by the bilge plates 74 which extend from stem to stern, and which are caused to curve upwardl at the rear to form a flat bottom stern. his construction, rendered possible by the form of the vessel, as well as by the channel iron construction, renders unnecessary the usual stern post with its many bends and with all the diflicult and costly complications which it entails. The elimination of the stern post and the.complex construction of the stern in general incident thereto is of far reaching importance and affords a amaze design of hull which can be most economically constructed. Furthermore, let it be noted that the flatbottom stern design of bull embodying my invention provides for a substantial displacement such as to render the stern portion more nearly if not entirely self supporting in the water. This has two advantages-first, it provides for a greater cargo carrying capacity by lessening the load on the midship portion, and second, if the ship is accidentally run upon a rock there is less danger of the accident being fatal due to springing seams et cetera when the tide falls and makes it necessary for the stern portion to float itself. As many intermediate decks may be installed or as many upper decks added as may be desired.

1 overcome objection to the use of channel irons respecting their lack of uniformity in two ways: first, I provide a bilge plate which may be positioned after the side portion is constructed; since this plate laps on its edges over both the bottom and side hull wall portions, it can take up any discrepancy in the width of the bottom or height of the side Wall; second, I provide for the top unit to have but a single flange, the upper edge being out according to the template, so that an exact fit is assured with the line of the upper deck. There are four points for the correction of any variation in width of the channel iron units due to rolling at the mill, which go to form the bottom and sides of the vessel, these four points of correction being the two bilge plates, port and starboard parts of the vessel, and the port and starboard units which form the sheer strake or strakes or the top channel units connected to the deck, and which are shown in the drawing, Figs. 1 and 2,'with the upper flange cut off. Also, despite the utmost care in blocking up the vessel, there is sure to be some dropping or settling and this, which of course is irregular, as well as that due to the lack of uniformity in the width of the channel iron units, is corrected quickly and economically by-my said stem-to-stern bilge plate provision, and forming the top channel units with a single flange.

Thus I provide a design of shi hull construction which renders the use 0 channel irons as formed at the steel mill practicable, eliminating all sharp bends. Obviously, channel irons with their flanges are not adaptable to two way bending, and the design of ship in practice with its tumble curved parts particular home and flaring portions and other complex about the stern post renders t e use of channel irons impracticable, as the cost of bending said units would be excessive if not prohibitive. My invention, providin a design or ship wherein the lines of a l transverse sections are rectilinear and all transverse sections are similar in form to the mid-ship section, eliminates such objection and necessitates only most simple bending and these with curves whose radii are long. By providing the roove in the heel of the channel irons caulking is rendered a simple operation and adapts channel irons to use in single walled hulls. In short, all operations upon the channel irons at the shipyards are reduced to the minimum and are of a most simple character. The groove in the heel would be easily formed at the mill by rolls of the roper design when the channel iron is rol ed out. Furthermore, it is manifest that false framework and supports during construction, as well as much bolting-up, are eliminated.

My desi n of ship effects the greatest economy w en channel ironsconstitute the units of construction. However, manifestly such design of ship can be used when plates constitute the units of construction, doing awaywith much of the bending necessary in the design in present practice. Obviously, changes in form, dimensions and arrangements of theparts of my invention may be made without departing from the principle thereof, the above setting forth merely a preferred form of embodiment of my invention.

I claim A ship hull substantially square in vertical cross-section at all transverse planes, said hull being composed of plates of channel metal the flanges of which are riveted together, said channels extending length wise along the deck, sides and bottom, the terminal side and bottom plates being spaced apart and a bilge plate extending from stem to stern, which bilge plate connects said side and bottom plates, said bilge plate being continued and curved upwardly at the rear end, forming a flat bottom stern, whereby compound curvature of any of the channels is avoided.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 25 day of June, 1920.

ROBERT ELWOOD ELLIS. 

